Landon Collins breaks down in tears after season-ending injury

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Landon Collins saw the X-ray of his broken right forearm at halftime on Sunday and broke down crying with the knowledge that his season is over.

“I don’t remember the last time I even cried, and as soon as I saw the picture up on the X-ray, man, I broke down,” a crushed Collins said at his locker. “I couldn’t hold it in. I broke down.

“It’s the worst feeling in the world, to not be able to play with my boys, that’s what hurt me the most,” Collins added. “I came in here crying. That’s what hurt me the most. It’s not the injury because I can try to fight through an injury. But to not be able to play because it’s broke(n) ….”

Collins, 23, the Giants’ third-year strong safety, said it’s “very rare” for him to cry. But it was difficult for him to be standing with his arm in a sling only five days after the high of learning he’d made his second straight Pro Bowl.

Collins has labored most of the season on a high ankle sprain he suffered in Week 5 against the Chargers but he hadn’t missed a game, playing the last two weeks even though both he and interim coach Steve Spagnuolo had admitted he probably shouldn’t have been on the field.

Landon Collins’ season is over.

(Pat Leonard / New York Daily News)

And so it was even more frustrating that Collins’ ankle wasn’t what doomed him but a new injury sustained on Collins’ massive hit on Cardinals running back D.J. Foster late in the second quarter.

“I knew it was broke(n) because I could still move my fingers and my wrist but if I push on you, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t resist it,” Collins said. “And when I said something was wrong then I felt a click, and I kept feeling the click, so I was like something’s wrong with my wrist. And I didn’t go down (on the field) because of the pain, I just went down because there was a two-minute series so I had to stop the clock … And something didn’t feel right. It felt weird.”

The Cardinals then promptly scored their first touchdown on the very next play after Collins exited, replaced by Andrew Adams, on a 13-yard Drew Stanton TD pass to Larry Fitzgerald. Collins at least was proud, however, even though he didn’t make it to Week 17, that he did all he could through his injuries until he couldn’t do any more.

“It’s tough, for me definitely tough, “Collins said of this season, “just trying to play through injuries and trying to be on the field with my guys as much as possible and figure out some kind of way. I tried my best, and I can hold my head up high for that. I tried my best.”

Evan Engram was forced out of the Giants’ loss Sunday.

(Norm Hall/Getty Images)

ENGRAM GOES DOWN, TOO

Rookie tight end Evan Engram, the team’s leading receiver this season, left Sunday’s game with a rib injury in the first quarter and did not return. Engram was injured reaching for an Eli Manning pass that tipped off his finger and was intercepted by Antoine Bethea, the Cardinals safety’s first of two INTs on the day. Spagnuolo couldn’t say how serious Engram’s injury was immediately after the game.

Wideout Sterling Shepard, who dealt with what the team called migraines a few weeks ago, also left the game midway through the fourth quarter with a neck injury after being driven hard into the turf on a catch. But Shepard said “I don’t have a head injury. My neck is just sore. It’s all good, though.”

“It’s not too bad,” Shepard said. “It’s just they made me come out of the game. I wasn’t gonna come out the game but they made me come out. It’s frustrating, though.”

The Giants truly have dealt with an unbelievable amount of injuries to their top receivers: Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Harris all suffered season-ending injuries in Week 5. Shepard has been banged up throughout the season.